Hybrid industrial cloud adoption will more than double over the next five years at a respectable 21.1 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR), according to a new report by ABI Research. The virtualization of business-critical infrastructure is transforming the production and distribution of goods and services throughout the supply chain as industrial organizations shift focus from private to public and ultimately hybrid cloud deployments that connect and integrate on-premise resources with cloud resources.

The worldwide infrastructure as a service (IaaS) market grew 29.5 percent in 2017 to total $23.5 billion, up from $18.2 billion in 2016, according to Gartner, Inc. Amazon was the No. 1 vendor in the IaaS market in 2017, followed by Microsoft, Alibaba, Google and IBM.

Mobile biometrics will authenticate $2 trillion worth of in-store and remote mobile payment transactions annually by 2023, according to a new study from Juniper Research. This is 17 times the $124 billion expected in 2018, as initiatives furthering secure remote payment transactions and more open biometric platforms proliferate.

Europe will be the second-largest investor in blockchain technologies, according to IDC's latest “Worldwide Semiannual Blockchain Spending Guide”. With a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 80.2 percent for 2017–2022, Europe will increase its spending from around $400 million in 2018 to $3.5 billion in 2022, helping it to close the gap with the U.S., the biggest blockchain investor.

There is a growing interest in how cognitive systems can improve robotic solutions, both in the incremental sense of improving productivity and the strategic sense of adding entirely new capabilities, according to a new report from ABI Research.  

Despite 95 percent of CIOs expecting cyberthreats to increase over the next three years, only 65 percent of their organizations currently have a cybersecurity expert, according to a survey from Gartner, Inc. The survey also reveals that skills challenges continue to plague organizations that undergo digitalization, with digital security staffing shortages considered a top inhibitor to innovation.

Latin American companies are shifting focus in 2018 away from technology spending to optimally employing digital transformation accelerators to enhance their business, new research from Frost & Sullivan reveals.

The transformation of the access network is in full swing, buoyed by fundamental changes in how people work, the devices they use and the adoption of new business processes centered around mobility and digital information, according to a study released by business information provider IHS Markit.

Worldwide spending on blockchain solutions is forecast to reach $11.7 billion in 2022, according to a new update to the Worldwide Semiannual Blockchain Spending Guide from International Data Corporation (IDC).

Broadband services offered by leading companies in the cable and telecommunications industries have provided critical enabling platforms for organizations implementing digital transformation strategies. However, the network service providers (NSPs) themselves have remained mired in legacy operations, according to Chris Menier, Vice President and Transformation Strategist at Vitria, the Menlo Park, Calif.-based IoT analytics platform provider, in a podcast interview for journalists.

A new study from Juniper Research found that spending on Internet of Things (IoT) cybersecurity solutions is set to reach over $6 billion globally by 2023. The UK-based consultancy highlighted rapid growth, with spending by product and service providers (in consumer markets) and end-customers (in industrial and public services markets) to rise by nearly 300 percent over the forecast period.

The average U.S. smartphone upgrade cycle is 32 months, up from 25 months one year prior (2H 2017 vs. 2H 2016), according to the latest Mobile Connectivity Report from NPD Connected Intelligence. Over the same time period, the percentage of smartphone users holding on to their smartphones for over three years has increased from 18 percent in the second half of 2016 to 22 percent in the second half of 2017.

New video research from Parks Associates reveals U.S. broadband households watch an average of two hours of alternative content on a computer each week from sources including Facebook, SnapChat, YouTube, Vimeo, and Dailymotion.

The rapid and increasing number of worldwide 4K flat panel TV shipments over the past few years is contributing to the overall growth of the global flat panel TV market, according to a new forecast from ABI Research. 4K TV units account for more than one-third of the total flat panel TV units sold in 2017. The strategic advisory firm forecasts that 4K flat panel TV shipments will surpass 102 million in 2018, representing 44 percent of total global flat panel TV shipments.

Property & casualty (P&C) insurance companies are failing to meet their customers’ expectations when it comes to digital interactions, according to the J.D. Power 2018 Insurance Digital Experience Study.

Worldwide shipments of devices -- PCs, tablets and mobile phones -- are on pace to record 0.9 percent growth to reach 2.28 billion units in 2018, according to Gartner, Inc. The PC and tablet market is estimated to decline 1.2 percent in 2018, while the mobile phone market is on pace to record an increase of 1.4 percent.

One-tenth of all U.S. broadband customers are watching the new esports content form, while 62 percent spend at least one hour per week playing video games, according to new research from Parks Associates. Additionally, 62 percent of U.S. broadband households play video games at least one hour per week.

Nearly 10 percent of industrial smart glasses and standalone virtual reality (VR) devices will have a 5G connection by 2026, according to a new forecast from ABI Research. Additionally, augmented reality (AR) is growing in presence in industrial applications such as smart manufacturing and remote operation of industrial machinery.

More than half (51 percent) of consumers who are active in buying or renting video content consumed at least some digital content, which is 7 percentage points higher than last year, according to a new report from NPD Group.

The rise of smart cities will accelerate the adoption and growth opportunities of demand response (DR) solutions in the residential segment, according to new research from Frost & Sullivan.